Ice, ice baby…
Sadly, we didn't get to bench this card to Vanilla Ice's popular song from the nineties, but we did get to bench it - read on to find out if this card is hot or not.
Tech specs are relatively solid on this one, with the RV730 XT core running at an overclocked speed of 30MHz over stock (750MHz) and the memory zooming along a 128-bit bus at 1000MHz. Strangely, these memory chips are not covered by any part of the cooler, nor do they receive airflow from the card - make sure you have good case airflow if you're going to push the memory any further.
The cooler itself is the usual HIS IceQ - a solid block of aluminium that rises up into thick, extruded aluminium fins, enclosed by a frosted plastic shroud and a large blue fan. This creates a very effective wind tunnel, sucking in cool air and dumping all the hot air outside the rear of the case. Another interesting feature is that the fan blades are actually UV reactive, but there are no LEDs available to take advantage of this - you'll need to buy some UV CCFLs/LEDs if you want it to glow.
Twin DVI ports and an analogue video out port are standard fare, as are the two Crossfire connectors on the card - though no bridge was included in the packaging, so you'll have to buy one elsewhere if you wanted to use Crossfire with this card. Most ATI cards with the connectors will come with the bridge, so this is a very strange omission.
Performance is pretty good for the asking price, returning good scores across the board, and giving you a decent playing experience in both the games. Idle temps are at 37 degrees, and load hits 53 with a constant 52.8dBA generated - this has plenty of room for overclocking, and remains rather quiet throughout.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012